England Women Name Provisional Squad For World T20

The England selectors have named their provisional squad for the ICC Women’s Twenty20, which will be held alongside the men’s later this year.

The chairwoman of the ICC’s women’s cricket committee, Clare Connor, spoke of the importance of this arrangement with the men’s game continuing, and of the decline of Tests in the women’s game, saying, “The reality is that since the T20 format came into being in international cricket in 2004, there has barely been any Test cricket. That's because the T20 format gives us that platform. It's a shorter format, it's more likely to grow the game from a participation perspective and also from a commercial perspective. It gives us probably more opportunity to get on television, and I think that is the way the women's game is headed. That's the reality and we have got to embrace that, and we are, with more and more double headers."

The men’s event kicks off in Sri Lanka on 18th September, with the women’s event getting underway on 26th September. England’s first match is the following day against Pakistan Women in Galle. England's squad will be cut down to 14 players at a later date.